VideoLAN (VLC) is one super-mighty media player. It plays everything and anything
you throw at it, chomping bytes and codecs like mad. Not only that, VLC can do a whole lot more. It is not just
a tool for watching videos and listening to music. This feisty player can also perform quite a bit of media
manipulation, in a good sort of way. It can record, stream and transcode your files. Today, we will do just
that.

I want to show you how you can play network streams and transcode them to files, both video and audio. I want
to show you how you can record playback, saving you the hassle of cutting, cropping and extracting audio from
your files. And I'll teach you about several other cool features that make VLC the king of digital
entertainment.

Streaming

There are several ways you can utilize streams. First, you can play online radio stations directly from VLC by
going to Media > Open Network Stream. Next, you input the URL of the desired online content, either audio or
video or both.

If you want to listen, that's all you need to do. But then, you might also want to stream the content to local
storage. In that case, click on the little drop-down arrow and expand the menu currently reading Play. Choose
Stream instead.

A new window will show, where you can configure the stream output. The gray box explaining what you're about to
do is quite ugly, but forget that. What you need is a source of some kind, in our case a Web link. Then, click
Next.

Now, you need to configure the destination. We will save the stream to a local file in MP4 format. Several
pre-configured profiles exist, saving you time trying to figure out what kind of encoding you may want.

Click Stream to start. While the radio plays and records, you can check the local directory to see your file
grow. You can test in another player, if you really want to be sure. Now, the choice of the output file is
important. For example, I recorded a short stream from play.cz as an MP4 file, but there's no video. This means
we might have to transcode the recorded file again to get only the audio stream, or make the correct choice of
the transcoding profile before streaming.

Recording

Recording is even simpler. To be able to record, you first need to enable Advanced Controls. This option is
available in the View sub-menu. Once you activate the controls, a second command toolbar will appear in the
main interface.

Now, you can simply press the Record button and anything playing in VLC will be recorded and saved locally.
Videos will be saved under Videos or My Videos in your home directory or user folder, depending on your
operating system. Likewise, audio files will go under Music or My Music, respectively.

And here's that short recording in Kaffeine, which shows there's 14 seconds of playback left. No manipulation
was needed, just press once on the red button to record and once more to stop. Like old VHS.

Same for audio:

Some more reading

I have tons more articles on media manipulation. They should all benefit you in some way, but here's a sampling
of some jolly good tutorials. Of course, you're most welcome to check the entire section and explore everything.

Conclusion

VideoLAN is a truly magnificent product, the Swiss Army Knife, the Jack o' All Trades, the Chuck Norris of the
digital media format. And today, you've just learned how to stream and record audio and video. Quite simple, if
you know where to look.

Streaming is a very powerful feature. It lets you easily transcode your files, as well as capture online radio
and video, webcasts, podcasts, and other types of casts. You can also directly record anything that is being
played inside VLC if you do not feel like dabbling with some of the more complicated options. Well, I guess
that would be all.